Our Search Process
Strategy
Once Brightlights has been chosen to execute the search, we meet with the hiring manager(s) and other team members to conduct a comprehensive overview of your needs. This includes a detailed understanding of your industry, your firm’s competitive landscape, your organization’s strengths and weaknesses, the mandate of the role and the defining points that will ensure excellence versus just passable results in the role. We then prepare a position description and ensure the position title and must have versus nice-to-have skills are clearly defined for the outside world.
Research
Through our researching efforts we generate a list of target candidates, and companies, and begin making preliminary calls to a wide variety of individuals in related firms and roles. We work our extensive networks and databases, canvass industry contacts, and cold-call industry leaders for suggestions and referrals. Because of our established track record individuals are much more open to sharing their contacts with us than with general researchers who might be calling from non industry specific recruiting firms.
The market research we collect during the search usually uncovers significant industry activity, as well as valuable feedback on your company, the position and your proposed compensation levels. This is all shared with you to improve your ongoing hiring process.
Interviews and Assessment
Top candidates are invited for personal interviews. Each candidate is assessed for technical proficiency as well as leadership skills, personality and cultural fit. (Formal psychological assessments can be conducted at the client’s request). Each short-listed candidate has a SWOT analysis done (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) which are shared with you, prior to the interviews. In many cases, we sit in on interviews with the various hiring managers to gain a better understanding of the importance your hiring manager’s place on various criteria within the role. Feedback is then shared on each candidate. Through this feedback our ability to qualify potential candidates becomes that much stronger.
Typically, we will send you a short list of candidates within three to five weeks of the search beginning. We will often provide a “Benchmark Candidate” even earlier to ensure that we are on the right track.
Reference Checking
Past experience often predicts future behavior so we place very high value on detailed reference checks with the former direct managers of the leading candidates. We search out references not provided by the candidate to gain a better understanding of the person’s previous successes and failures.
Negotiating
When you are satisfied that we have found the best candidate, we will help you prepare an offer and then present it on your behalf. This ensures a minimum of friction and that the correct expectations are set and fulfilled as the offer is presented.
Follow-up
Once the candidate joins your team, we continue to monitor their progress to ensure a proper fit and to try and curtail potential problems.
